In light of a $10 million cash infusion from TD Capital Group, Investissement Desjardins and Royal Bank Capital Corporation, Cinepix Film Properties will begin capitalizing on growth opportunities in production, u.s. theatrical expansion, animation and worldwide sales, says Jeff Sackman, executive vp.

For producers, the equity infusion means cfp will have the stability to stimulate more projects. For fiscal 1996/97, the company will spend $35 million on production, a significant increase over the approximately $23 million the company spent in 1995/96. Sackman believes spending will remain around the $35 million mark for 1997/98 as well.

Of this year’s production envelope, cfp has spent about $3 million on Stag, the company’s first u.s. production. Mario Van Peebles, Andrew McCarthy, Kevin Dillon and Taylor Dayne star in an original script by Evan Tylor and Pat Burmell, directed by Gavin Wilding. The feature, a story of a stag party gone awry with the death of a stripper, will be handled by cfp worldwide and is now shooting in New York.

While Sackman says there are about 30 films in cfp’s development stable, the company is still interested in soliciting projects with ‘reasonable commercial prospects.’

‘In terms of budget, we’re leaning towards the $3-$5 million range,’ says Sackman. ‘If people see us as a potential producer, executive producer, financier, distributor, etc., bring a script with elements attached because that’s something I can respond to quickly. You get a lot further ahead, be it with a director or, preferably, a star.’

While Sackman says the company has an ‘inclination’ towards producing Canadian films, the profitability comes first: ‘We’re a commercially oriented company, so they have to be films with the likelihood of making money.’

As for the company’s continued expansion, Sackman says cfp will be allocating more money to animation through Montreal-based producer Cine-Groupe, in which cfp has a 55% interest. ‘We want to make it a far more significant and renowned entity than it’s been,’ says Sackman. ‘The opportunity (in animation) is phenomenal.’

In terms of an expansion of worldwide sales, Sackman gives Prairie Doves as an example of a project that’s ‘a good fit.’ Christina Jennings of Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films, Stephen Onda of Regina’s Heartland Motion Pictures and Ann Scott of London, Eng.-based Greenpoint Films are producing a portrait of a group of prostitutes in a small western town during the 1870s.

Jon Sanders will direct a cast that includes Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), Bronagh Gallagher (The Commitments, Pulp Fiction) and Kelly McGillis (Top Gun, Accused). Principal photography begins Oct. 21 in Regina, and cfp is the Canadian distributor and foreign agent.

‘It was a complicated deal with a lot of investors,’ says Sackman, ‘but cast-driven material is what we’re looking for worldwide. It’s a part of our business we definitely want to build, and we’re not insisting that we produce the films. We have a lot to offer producers with finished films.’

In the u.s. theatrical market, cfp recently picked up Anjelica Huston’s Bastard Out Of Carolina and Peter Greenaway’s Pillow Book from the Toronto International Film Festival. ‘Our modus operandi for the u.s. market is to seek finished specialty films. I don’t know that we’d acquire u.s. rights up front on Canadian productions, but it’s an opportunity thing. For example, we would have considered taking Kissed (Lynn Stopkewich’s first feature).’